(Author note: From here on out, the phrase "Dick Cheney" shall hereby refer not merely to the former vice-president himself, but also to the sour, clenched worldview he so perfectly encapsulated and still so lovingly represents.

Dick Cheney is a lexical wonder. He can be a violent action verb: "Dude I just Dick Cheney'd that squirrel with my F-150." He is a dark intention: "Let's pull a Dick Cheney on that queer kid in the locker room." He is, most of all, a state of being, a mindset, a fixed position of general disgust. "Sorry lady, I can't save you from this burning building. I'm far too Dick Cheney to give a damn." Clear? Excellent. Let's continue).

Who the hell wants to be known for demonstrating peaceful, effective humanitarianism and calm diplomacy, and saving human lives if it makes us look like a bunch of weak-kneed pansies? Where is the glory? Where's the firepower? Image is everything. Strut the plumage. Carry the biggest stick. In Cheneyland, sneering intimidation is not only useful, it's vital. There is nothing else.

Or maybe not. Maybe the Obama Way is already turning out to be far more effective, more subtle and intriguing, and much more in America's favor, as tyrannical psychopaths like Kim Jong Il are stupefied into compliance by even the pretense of being taken seriously by the Great Satan, and sane world leaders across the globe finally see a country they can deal with intelligently on pressing matters instead of merely joining them at the gun range to blast stuff to hell.

You might say Dick is not pleased. In fact, Dick Cheney -- and the entire hawkish, antagonistic worldview he embodies -- is downright furious at this country's dangerous new direction. Which, in its way, just might be the best news I've heard all year.

A simple phrase to remember the rules: "Off the old and cut off the rest!"

Be happy in your work!

There may be a program to convince the 'tards that there is, in fact, an all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent Progressive God, as opposed to the Asshole they have long professed belief in, who will let them live if they confess their sins, repent, and STFU. I'm still ponderin' that one. Might be too much trouble for too little gain.

Update:

Due to the inescapable fact that the best ideas sometimes come hours after the post, the merciful (to us) euthanization/sterilization program will henceforth be known as "Operation Snuff 'n Snip".

Some of us were skeptical. A couple of months after Mr. Obama gave that speech, I warned that his vision of a “different kind of politics” was a vain hope, that any Democrat who made it to the White House would face “an unending procession of wild charges and fake scandals, dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can’t bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false.”

So, how’s it going?

Sure enough, President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

So much, then, for Mr. Obama’s dream of moving beyond divisive politics. The truth is that the factors that made politics so ugly in the Clinton years — the paranoia of a significant minority of Americans and the cynical willingness of leading Republicans to cater to that paranoia — are as strong as ever. In fact, the situation may be even worse than it was in the 1990s because the collapse of the Bush administration has left the G.O.P. with no real leaders other than Rush Limbaugh.

The question now is how Mr. Obama will deal with the death of his postpartisan dream.

What’s still missing, however, is a sense of passion and outrage — passion for the goal of ensuring that every American gets the health care he or she needs, outrage at the lies and fear-mongering that are being used to block that goal.

He's right. Barry, if you're ever going to get fist-shakin', preacher-shoutin', stack-blowin', cringe-inducin' angry about anything, now's the time. Go find a Marine Gunny to show you how to do it.

Re the title of Mr. Krugman's article and this post: I hope it's a short trip. We could all use some peace and quiet.

Robert Parry has today's 'must read' about massive right-wing fearmongering and lies.

The right-wing fury at town hall meetings over health care and the Republican obstruction of any serious reform in Washington are not just symptoms of a complex debate on an issue packed with powerful special interests; it is a test of whether reality matters in the United States.

There is a direct lineage from the Iraq War hysteria to the current madness surrounding the health-care fight. In both cases, the hysteria was stoked by leading Republicans and their right-wing media allies. Both involved disseminating farfetched, nightmare scenarios to a gullible (if not paranoid) segment of the population, which was then whipped into a frenzy that spilled over into intimidation and silencing voices of disagreement.

Some rational Americans, it seems, have their own erroneous beliefs that justify inaction. Over the years, I’ve often heard the hopeful slogans that “the truth will out” or that “the pendulum will swing back,” when the reality is that there are no automatic mechanisms for stopping lies and distortions.

Truth is a battle, much as democracy is. Bringing truth to light requires resources and infrastructure, as well as personal honesty and courage. That is especially true when the other side in the battle has opted for a strategy of falsehoods and exaggerations – and has assembled both powerful artillery and well-trained mercenaries to carry out what it calls “information warfare.”

Can Dick Cheney's book be used as evidence against him? I mean, from what's leaked out already, he basically admits to usurping the power of the presidency, for the Chimp's first term at the least. Maru:

...

A bitter Dick Cheney still can’t believe Bunnypants found the stones to ignore his orders… uhhhh, advice during their second term in the White House, saying the little dumbass showed a "surprising independence" near the end, especially when he fired Rumsfeld, when he refused to pardon Cheney BFF Scooter Libby, and when he refused to bomb the bejeebus out of Iran and North Korea or torture Democrats.

...

I still can't believe we actually survived the past 8 years. Off to work ...

I'm so sick of this health care 'debate'. The people who yell loudest about the issues have no clue (or worse, are paid shills for the insurance industry) and yet they're given a forum and credibility. The seniors, those who will be affected least by any reform, allow themselves to be scared into apoplexy instead of finding the facts for themselves. Our pal PC has a good idea for those who want "government to keep their hands of my Medicare".

...

And various old farts who have been enjoying the Socialistic, Government-run and funded Medicare for a good part of their worthless lives, are out in force screaming and yelling and acting like idiots and making the rest of us old farts look bad.

Hey, lookit, you ignorami: If you're THAT het-up about Socialism, get off Medicare! Find someone willing to insure you and pay for it out of your own fucking pockets. The rest of us will take your place. I'd be happy for some government-run and funded Medicare. Die already, you worthless, oxygen-stealing sacks of shit, instead of embarrassing the rest of us who might be in your age demographic. Jesus fucking J.H. Christ, what a worthless lot of louts.

This whole 'controversy' has been an obvious ginned-up fake to begin with and it really surprised me (though after blogging for 5 years it shouldn't have) how many people swallowed the craziness, hook, line, and sinker. How many people allowed themselves to become terrified over rumor and outright lies? It's disgusting and ridiculous.

I don't have much hope for whatever ends up being called reform after all this horseshit being spread so deeply. The next time somebody wants to reform something, I suggest they try the campaign financing system or the news media. If it weren't for the corporate apologists in the media and the bought-and-paid-for politicians, this country might just have a chance. I have a bad feeling the corporate/political system is too entrenched to be changed by anything short of cataclysm.

Now, follow the bouncing ball: Another miscalculation by the Obama administration was in not seeing the political value of investigating and prosecuting Bush administration officials, including Dick Cheney. See, having the Justice Department under Eric Holder threatening to arrest and drag off the ex-VP and others would have been the perfect shiny object for the right wing. Who has time (or as much time) to argue about whether or not Obama wants to kill Granny if he's wanting to jail Alberto Gonzales? Let people protest and let Rush Limbaugh pop like a diseased pimple over it while Glenn Beck weeps that he's next. Hey, Obama has no control, really, if Justice wants to go ahead, right? And think of what it would have forced Republicans to do: state whether or not they support the actions of the Bush administration, the presidency they dare not speak of because it reminds people of what they're actually angry about. Yes, such action against the Bush White House would have been a distraction, but in a good way. The other thing it would have done is to ameliorate the rage of much of the nation, the gnawing sense that "they got away with it."

The Obamas really arealien reptile human impostors!!!!11!!!1 That must mean the Vogons are going to destroy the Earth to make way for an interstellar bypass! I hope Captain Picard arrives in the nick of time to save us!!!!!!

I suggest they cancel these town hall meetings all together. They are nothing more than a stage for birthers, deathers, and tea baggers to grandstand.

Nothing of importance is happening at these meetings and a quick phone call to a representative or senator would probably garner more information on health care reform than spending three hours at one of these meetings.

...

They've turned into a fucking joke. If you want to see the equivalent, just watch one of the cable 'news' talking head shows. The 'town hall meetings' have turned into nothing but screechfests.

If I were a member of Congress on August recess I wouldn't waste my time on this "Town Hall" nonsense. Who started the modern day version of town halls, anyway? I know they're part of our long and glorious history, but they don't work in an era of lunatics who think the government is going to ration their toilet paper after murdering their grandma at the behest of a "Death Panel comprised of Bill Ayers, the Reverend Wright, and the Black Panthers.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan Tuesday registered a criminal case against Pervez Musharraf, a precursor to potentially putting the ex-president on trial over his 2007 detention of judges as he attempted to cling to power.

Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and sacked about 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the supreme court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.

On a plea filed by lawyer Mohammad Aslam Ghuman, Islamabad district and sessions judge Mohammad Akmal directed police to register a case against Musharraf, who is currently in Europe.

Gee, why can't we do that here? Here's the paragraph I'd like to see:

"On a plea filed by law firm Gonif, Swindle, and Finagle, a federal judge directed police to register a case against Bush and Cheney, who are currently in Texas and Washington D.C."

German academics who have been engaged for years in a campaign callingfor the reprinting of an annotated version of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") received support from an unlikely source. The Central Council of Jews in Germany expressed its support for reissuing the book, whose production has been banned in the country since the end of World War II.

Stephan Kramer, the council's general secretary, called for publishing the book in an academic format so that the next generation of Germans could learn about the Nazi ideology. "A historically critical edition [of the book] needs to be prepared today to prevent neo-Nazis from profiting from it,"...[...]

German neo-Nazis can read? Imagine that! Ours barely know how to turn on their AM radios or F** Noise to get their marching orders.

DAHANEH, Afghanistan – Helicopter-borne U.S. Marines backed by Harrier jets stormed a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan before dawn Wednesday, the launch of a new operation to uproot Taliban fighters from a longtime base and provide security for next week's presidential election.

The Taliban put up such fierce resistance that Marines said they suspected the militants knew the assault was coming.

The Japanese knew they were coming at Iwo Jima too. In the end, it didn't help there either.

Other Marines met heavy resistance as they fought to seize control of the mountains surrounding Dahaneh in the southern province of Helmand. Another convoy of Marines rolled into the town despite roadside bomb attacks and gunfire.

Note to the AP correspondent - 'heavy resistance...Marines rolled into the town despite roadside bomb attacks and gunfire'

Jesus Christ, lady, just exactly what is it you think Marines do? If there's one thing Marines understand, it's that you gotta bring some to get some, and they bring a lot to any party they attend.

Go read, and click 'play video'. There are several.

The larger political picture be damned when my Marines are on the assault. Get some, lads. Bring some serious smoke on the Taliban's ass.

Ever since the Nixon Southern Strategy, race has been the seedy, reprehensible political card played by the GOP whenever they need to win in a tight spot.

So it is now, as they try to cripple the Obama presidency by crushing the common good of healthcare for all Americans so corporations can feast and grow fat with profit at the expense of our well being.

Race again is being used as the scapegoat to arouse the hordes that laid dormant through 8 years of Bush tyranny: they would be against anything Obama would do because he is black and represents a symbolic psychological flashpoint of anger to middle and lower class white Christian (males in particular) who thought that they owned America, and that democracy was just for whites.

But what the GOP and its media shills are igniting now may lead to violence in the streets (there have already been several mass shootings committed by wing nuts) or even, God forbid, an assassination. The purpose of the GOP is to castrate Obama's power, a gruesome but apt metaphor for what slave owners did to male blacks who were not obedient.

So the pawns -- the virulent racists are empowered by FOX and Limbaugh and the GOP leadership -- and they are on the loose, this time in Wal-Mart get ups instead of White Sheets.

Go read the rest and the comments.

I guess the best we can hope for is all this bullshit crazytalk blows up in their faces before too many people actually get hurt or killed. Some have already. Let's hope that, like in most instances, when all is said and done, more will have been said than done.

House Judiciary Committee released thousands of pages of new documents concerning the firing of nine US Attorneys under the Bush Administration — and they heavily implicate the office of onetime Bush adviser Karl Rove.

General Motors announced on Tuesday morning that its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car had delivered a fuel-economy rating of 230 miles a gallon — which sounds outrageous. With that kind of gas mileage, you could practically drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on a single gallon of gas, or for around three bucks.

...

Of course the range on pure electric power is about 40 miles, and then the gas engine kicks in to keep the battery up. That's fine, it's still pretty economical and most people drive less than 50 miles in a day, so driving it should still be inexpensive.

I'd like to know who can afford to buy one with a price tag of $40K?

Ein Volks auto ist 'es nicht.

Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Chevy make hybrids (I'd stick to the Japanese brands if you're in the market) a lot cheaper which are also economical to buy, drive, and repair (something unknown about the Volt). The Chevy Volt is nothing more than a cachet vehicle; something with which the well-to-do can show off their 'greenness'. Hopefully, GM will use the technology to make small sedans in the $12 - $15K range that will be more accessible to the masses. Thing is, as GM has done for the last 30 years, it looks like they've already missed the boat:

...

Team Nissan is referring, of course, to the electric vehicle in the photograph above (and the video below). The LEAF, which will go into production next year – with a tentative release date of 2012 – is expected to be much cheaper than the Volt. How much cheaper? Nissan isn’t saying. Wired, for one, thinks the cute-as-a-button car could come in at $25,000 – some $15K cheaper than the Volt.

...

Toyota has had electric vehicles for the better part of the decade and Honda is also producing their own version. It's probably a safe bet the Japanese will do them better.

Is that you shouldn't feel so warm and comfy (like you just peed yer pants in a dark suit) if you have some sort of health insurance:

... Plainly, those who have insurance are on thin ice too, every last one of them.

...

No shit. How many can afford their COBRA payments for any amount of time after they're laid off? How many, after they're laid off can find a job that gives them the same level of benefit and coverage? How many will take a job with no benefits at all?

An aside: I worked for a guy once, in a gas station (a Mobil station in Queens), who employed a buncha Indian (Indian-Indian, not American-Indian) guys to cashier in the snack shop and pump gas at the full-serve islands. The prick owner also owned the apartment building where all these guys lived. He paid them little-to-nothing and let them live almost free in a rat hole. They worked 12 hours a day (the gas and snack shop were 24 hour operations), 7 days a week. One of the Indians asked for a shift off one day to go to a family function. The owner basically told him that there were a hundred guys waiting for his job and if he took the day off, he might as well not come back.

The mechanics didn't get benefits, think the Indian guys did? How many 'American' guys are in the same spot now? There are a lot of bastards out there who don't give a shit if you got 5 little kids at home and a 6th on the way. With millions of jobs lost over the past 18 months, do you think folks can afford to pick and choose where they want to work and expect their employer to give them health benefits?

So now, those all happy with their insurance, how long you think it'll last once you lose your job? How fast will you be screaming for a 'public option' when you're on the unemployment line? A job you feel secure in today could be gone tomorrow. Try not to look down your nose at those who are going under because they had the misfortune of getting sick.

Republican on medicare is worried about government health care because nobody can compete with the government. He does, at least, recognize that Medicare is a government program, he just doesn't think most people should have it as good as he does.

Something a little different. The clip below is the most work-safe one I could find from the Joan Rivers Roast last night on Comedy Central. Many, many more.

From her wiki, I discovered she's a Russian Jew from New York. Imagine that! (wink)

I remember Joan from her early days at Marshall Edson's Ye Little Club. I was too young to go inside and couldn't have afforded a drink in that joint anyway, but I could hear the laughter from the sidewalk. There wasn't much to do in Beverly Hills.

Canned for telling the truth at a major newspaper, Dan Froomkin has found a new gig.

As for me, this is the first of many posts in my new capacity as Washington bureau chief for the Huffington Post. Starting today, I hope to write fairly often - but that won't be my main job anymore. I'll also be working with a team of reporters who are redefining how Washington should be covered.

We'll be putting a premium on accountability journalism, focusing relentlessly on the corrupting effect of lobbyists and money on our government, and calling out those people in the national discourse who traffic in misinformation and know-nothingism rather than argue in good faith.

It's an opportunity to directly encourage and shape the kind of journalism that, in my previous incarnation, I occasionally championed - but more often yearned for.

The only possible response? "Hey, quitter, fuck you." And, then, as if to demonstrate said "fuck you," the Rude Pundit offers the following:

From the Columbus, Ohio TV station WBNS, here's a story about Margaret Druko, a woman with a four and a half year-old child with Down's Syndrome. Druko had to quit her job because child care centers wouldn't take her daughter. The only insurance she could get was for catastrophic care at $5000 a month. "Margaret said insurance companies told her Emily was considered a death risk. Without health insurance Margaret couldn't afford to pay for Emily to continue with her physical and occupational therapy. The Druko's go without medication for themselves because it's just too costly." The final fuck-you-Sarah? That story is from two weeks before Palin made her statement.

Or, in other words, ex-Governor, the death panel is there. It's called "the profit margin." Indeed, if the Grukos were a bit poorer, they'd qualify for government-run health care. Which would ensure that their daughter gets the care she needs. Denial of private insurance coverage because of Down's syndrome is unsurprisingly common. That's called "rationing."

Or, in otherer words, ex-Governor, now that you're out of a job, and by the time your COBRA runs out, and you're applying for new health insurance policies, Trig better hope that pre-existing conditions clauses or excessive risk denials don't bite his mom on her lying ass.

If all her lies and general bullshit bite her on the ass all at once, it'll be like the biker who put 'Odor Eaters' in his boots - all they found of him was his Buck knife and belt buckle.

Procter & Gamble in Deal with NFLCover Girl named official eyeshadow of Pittsburgh Steelers.

CORRECTION

Responding to the Senate Finance Committee’s desire not to rush the drafting of health care legislation, we quoted Barack Obama saying, “Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.” In fact, the quote comes from a speech by Harry S. Truman on November 19, 1945.

The back story is long and has been going on for years, interwoven with the Valerie Plame case, and Edmonds has been gagged by a 'State Secrets' order imposed by the Bush administration. She testified at the National Whistleblowers Center this weekend and Brad has been on it since the beginning. You know you won't hear any of this on CNN; maybe Olbermann and Maddow might mention it, so you owe it to yourself to read Brad's live blog of the event.

...

From my opinion, if I'm some of the current members of Congress, I'd be very very worried about the information that's going to come out of this. There are current members of Congress that she has implicated in bribery, espionage. It's not good. It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy. For people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don't take action against it, in my opinion, it's negligence.

[Which current members have been implicated?]

...

You know they'll do their best to cover all of it up. You. Must. Read. The. Whole. Thing.

Our pal D-cap is one of the best bloggers around (in league with the great Driftglass) and I can read his writing all day. This time he takes on the 'Palin Fan Club' with sexual analogies that make his point so very well:

...

Even worse than the idolization of Sarah Lovelace is the fact that the so-called "fourth estate" – there to protect the public from lies and deception - has barely made a whimper about her saying Obama will murder her child or about the other lunatics on the right who claim Obama is going to euthanize granny. For politicians and insane cable hosts - if there is no negative consequence for their irresponsible behavior and incendiary speech, you betcha there will be a lot more of it – and a lot more of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. What passes as journalism today is nothing short of dildo party.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, current and former U.S. government officials said.

A senior Justice Department official said that Holder envisioned an inquiry that would be narrow in scope, focusing on "whether people went beyond the techniques that were authorized" in Bush administration memos that liberally interpreted anti-torture laws. [my em]

...

If you're gonna do it, go all the way. If you're gonna do it half-assed, don't even bother. It was the interpretation of the laws that was criminal in the first place. Everything else flows from that.

These guys seem to be in good spirits, but I'm not sure whether we need to bring them home now to prevent further brain damage or to leave them overseas (NOT in Iraq!) for the rest of their thirty years and let the brain damage run its course where the rest of us can be safe from it...

Now, at this juncture, we expect the Republicans and the Villagers to do this crap, but I really wish I could smack those lefty bloggers who went along with the idea that it was over-the-top to compare the Bush regime with the Nazis, because they helped make it even easier for the little fascists to do what they did then and do what they're doing now. [my em]

U - S - A! U - S - A! I've been saying it for years, stupid has become chic over the past decade. Bill Maher thinks so too:

...

I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge."

...

It's always been amazing to me that people pay more attention to soap operas and the other drivel on TV (almost everything) than they do to the workings of the government. The annoying part is they feel free to spout their uninformed bullshit to the rest of us (and that they're allowed to vote).

...

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? ...

And the big problem is that we give morons the same credibility we give those who know what they're talking about. We are stupid, and it's the corporate criminals who (face it, they run everything) exploit it for personal gain. Collectively, we deserve everything we get if we're dumb enough to let them brainwash us into complicity.

Cynic that I am, I get the feeling we've already passed the proverbial 'point of no return'. The 'American IQ' has fallen too far to work our way out of the mess we let the last Moron-in-Chief get us into. The 'teabaggers' and 'birthers' are just the latest example of 'American Stupid' in action. And you wonder why so many people fall for African email scams?

Gordon

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"... That's US here at the Brain! Sittin' all alone out in the cold, thanklessly freezin' our beboops off, lookin' for a chance to lob a few at the enemy and praying for a secondary explosion, wonderin' if it's all worth it or if it will make any difference in the scheme of things ..." - Gordon